A young boy is being credited by Mounties after hearing the far-off cries of a missing toddler. 

On Sunday evening, a two-year-old boy and his family dog wandered away from home in Crossing Bay, in the lake-filled area 35 kilometres north of Moose Lake. The family did not know the child had wandered away. 

"It was believed that the child was with another member of the family. Two hours had passed before the family learned that the child was in fact missing," RCMP Manitoba says in a statement. 

At 5:40 p.m., RCMP was notified, using the Police Dog Services unit, a Manitoba Conservation helicopter, and the Search and Rescue team. Community members joined it, but it was a boy with a tip that saved the day. 

At 7:15 p.m., an eight-year-old boy told Mounties he heard a child crying in the distance. Using an ATV, officers travelled approximately 1.5 kilometres south of the community, finding the toddler and dog on a trail. 

The boy was unharmed and taken to the Moose Lake Nursing Station.